The following is an interview with Jamie Mustard regarding the upcoming release of the graphic novel, Hybred, with Street Noise Books. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Mustard about his creative process in working with artist Francesca Filomena to bring the story and characters to life on the page, what readers may take away from the story’s themes, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: November will see the release of your graphic novel, Hybred, through Street Noise Books. What can you share with us about the premise of this impactful story?
Jamie Mustard: The story is that of a young outcast in an alternative version of Los Angeles and Hollywood called Follyland. It is a sci-fi, supernatural reinvention of my childhood.
BD: The story deftly weaves the very real impacts of poverty and trauma in discarded communities within a captivating near-future drama. How would you describe your creative process in working with artist Francesca Filomena to bring the story and characters to life on the page?
When I found Francesca I was really interested in the way she painted light. She reminded me of a kind of modern Caravaggio with the way she makes her images glow. Francesca does this in her own way. She lives in a small town in Southern Italy a long way from urban Los Angeles, so it wasn’t an obvious collaboration. Her style is very light and happy and I was proposing this dark world. She said “no.”
There was one of her images in her portfolio that had a darkness. It was completely out of place. I told her the fact that she didn’t want to do it, with me art directing, we might make something unexpected. It took a few weeks but she changed her mind. She and her family have become close friends.
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums – no matter the genre. How do you feel that Johnny’s story may connect with and impact readers, and what, if any, conversations do you hope that it may inspire?
JM: I believe that emotional art can cause radical changes inside a human being and in the world. I think as someone that grew up thrown away and in a cultic environment that my experience of poverty and the way the world looks at poverty, once I rose above it, were starkly different. The world often sees poverty as people and places we have to create sympathy for and almost humiliate to help.
The ghettos of the world are in actuality full of geniuses — musicians, mathematicians, physicists, chess players, engineers, painters, philosophers, writers, academics, scientists, and every other type of genius one can imagine. In reality, and this makes sense, genius is evenly distributed throughout the world despite class. I wanted to reframe the way we look at poverty to be seen as the world’s largest resource of untapped genius. And as I say in the book, “a genius that can alter the world.” Going further, every human being feels like an outcast. Human beings like to see things in themselves through a prism of distance. Even though Johnny’s human experience is exotic and extreme, I think in his ‘outcastness’ in terms of his internal life, he is an everyman character. Johnny is all of us.
BD: What makes Street Noise Books the perfect home for this story?
JM: Liz Frances, the publisher of Street Noise Books, is a genius. She is one of the humblest, most integral and brilliant people I have ever met. All the stories she curates are so unique, yet she picks the most powerful ones. I believe Liz is driven by an insatiable curiosity to find out from the people who lived it. She has her mind made up about nothing. She started Street Noise with a dream that people want to look into a lens and see real people, the kind of people we may be afraid of — and that mass readers would see themselves.
When people see themselves in something that is extreme, they feel relief and can move through the world from a better place. The work of Street Noise also makes the ‘discarded’ feel seen and that in turn gives them a place in the world — a world where they can often feel invisible like I did as a kid. I must admit I was suspicious of her mission when we first met, but she means everything she says and does. Liz and Street Noise are a true inspiration. Last year, doing something completely revolutionary and new, thirty percent of the books at Street Noise got nominated for Eisner Awards. Street Noise is a visionary publisher and I am honored that they appreciate my work and art.
BD: Are there any additional projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
JM: I am working on a new book for Street Noise that comes out in April 2026 called War Poems. It is an episodic sci-fi book of short poetic stories and vignettes that focus on the most horrific and hated people that walk the Earth. I tell short poetic moments from their point of view — the view of the damned. When we see the world from their point of view, it alters the human experience. We feel empathy and empathy fosters love. We are all human. I want the work to be about something. Ultimately, I write tales, but I want to give people vitamins that they enjoy like a cheeseburger.
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Hybred and your other work?
JM: The best way is to follow me is to follow me on Instagram: @jamie_mustard
I love to talk to people that are interested in what I do. I am interested in stories and we all have one. I always respond to the people that message me and meet the most fascinating people. Meeting fellow everyday humans, connecting, and hearing their often unexpected stories, is what electrifies me as a human and an artist in the world.
